Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of local authority capacity to support British children returning from North east Syria.

Children returning from Syria are likely to have been exposed to the conflict, indoctrination, to have experienced severe trauma, and in some circumstances pose national security concerns that need to be carefully managed.

The Home Office has funded an NHS Foundation Trust to assist local authorities and local NHS trusts to conduct comprehensive mental health and emotional wellbeing assessments of all British children returning from the conflict in Syria; and to provide key worker support to assist in the safe reintegration of those children. Our support will be tailored to the needs of each individual child.